Thirty-One Gifts Admits Funding Pro-Planned Parenthood Groups

The Christian company Thirty-One Gifts has been the subject of considerable controversy this week because it is involved in funding organization that are partners with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Abby Johnson, the pro-life former Planned Parenthood abortion facility manager, first exposed the connections between Thirty-One Gifts and Planned Parenthood partners in a LifeNews blog post and Susan Michelle Tyrrell of the Bound4Life youth pro-life organization followed up with more information on the connections.

Now, Thirty-One Gifts has responded with a statement responding to the criticism.

Recently questions have been raised about Thirty-One and our philanthropy initiative, Thirty-One Gives. Thirty-One believes in celebrating, encouraging and rewarding women. Thirty-One Gives is our philanthropic initiative that ensures this mission is carried out through the celebration and empowerment of women and girls by strengthening their belief in themselves and strengthening their families … actions that lead to purposeful and thriving lives.

We support initiatives that align with this mission, which is why we focus our giving on organizations that support leadership and economic independence for women and girls such as Salvation Army, Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, Dress for Success Worldwide, Girls Scouts and YWCA of Central Ohio.

Thirty-One Gives has not provided any direct funding for Planned Parenthood or any other activities outside the scope of our mission.

Thirty-One Gives supports HER, no matter her circumstances, no matter where she’s been or where she’s going. We want to be there in her greatest time of need and in her greatest time of joy. We empower HER.

Here are some of our amazing partners:

Dress for Success Worldwide

Blume

GOGO Gives: Get One Give One Gives

Safe Horizon

Domestic Violence Intervention Services

YWCA of Central Ohio

Girl Scouts

Salvation Army

Project Woman

Interfaith Hospitality Network

The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio

ROX ­ Ruling Our Experiences

But Tyrrell calls the statement a “funding shell game” that provides indirect support for Planned Parenthood.

“This funding shell game has been an issue for pro-lifers for a long time. Recently the biggest public appearance of it was with the Susan G. Komen foundation funding Planned Parenthood,” she said. “All along, Komen has asserted it gives money to the abortion provider for breast cancer screenings, not abortions. We have reported on the issue of fungibility of funds many times. It’s impossible, of course, to donate money to a place that provides abortions and not add to their funding. That’s the shell game; move it around a bit and put it in the right accounts, but the nature of funding is the more money someone has for one thing the more it frees up money for another thing.”

“Of course, 1) we don’t know how much Thirty-One actually gave to the Women’s Fund to make a comparison, just that they admittedly did and 2) I don’t think that Thirty-One Gives is giving money to anyone for the expressed purpose of abortion either, but when you play around a fire, smoke gets on you. It’s impossible to give money to places that help fund Planned Parenthood and call yourself innocent of abortion,” she added.

Tyrrell also profiles an email the company is sending supporters claiming that claims published at LifeNews and other blogs are “untrue” and that Thirty-One Gifts is not directly funding Planned Parenthood, which is not the basis of the complaints from the pro-life advocates.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

Kristi Burton of Live Action drives that point home in a new column she wrote today.

“Not one of the pro-life organizations or people who have called Thirty-One out have claimed that they directly funded Planned Parenthood. That was never an issue. The issue, as of yet unaddressed by Thirty-One, is that its foundation does directly fund an organization who directly funds Planned Parenthood and is quite public about it,” she said.

Burton continues, “But Thirty-One, after hearing pro-lifers’ call on them to stop supporting Planned Parenthood’s friends, calls The Women’s Fund “amazing.” They also call the Girl Scouts and the YWCA, other knownsupporters of Planned Parenthood “amazing.” How can a Christian company say that an organization who donates to the biggest abortion giant in America is “amazing”?”

“Since the breaking of the news about Thirty-One’s partner organizations, many Christians have objected to the public outcry which has been raised without even acknowledging how wrong it is for a Christian company to support abortion in any way, shape, or form. I shouldn’t have to explain how any support of Planned Parenthood is support of abortion, and I won’t. Are we as Christians really so desensitized to the horror of abortion that we don’t even bother to object because we like a purse company so much,” she asked.